From Warsaw to Warsaw. Some remarks on the two ‘imaginary translations’ from Polish (1944) by Franco Fortini

Abstract

The article analyses Franco Fortini’s two poems written in 1944 during his exile in Switzerland: Warsaw 1939 and Warsaw 1944 (the latter’s former title was Warsaw 1943). The poet defined them Imaginary Translations, because he conceived them as translated from an inexistent original, written in occupied Poland. In this way, the Italian poet experimented for the first time with imaginary translations. Following Macpherson and Leopardi’s tradition of “Literary Hoaxes”, he sought new forms and “new words” for Poetry on WW II. The article compares the Fortini’s“Polish” poems with later comments on Imaginary translations (they are akin to “Imitation or Parody”, are created “taking delight in prank and experiment” and derive from a certain dominant conception of a foreign literature), paying particular attention to their strong intertextuality and their allusions to the practice of translating poetry in Italy.

Keywords

• 20th-century italian poetry
• imaginary translations
• translation studies